Shipping from Austria - Expensive!

[papermodelfan]

I was looking at the IPMS - Austria website thinking about buying the Fairey Rotodyne model, and was shocked to see that the estimated shipping cost was 47 Euros. I wrote to them and got a reply that because the weight is over 499 grams, US post regulations as of December 2010 require them to use a special package service EMS, which is very expensive. It has something to do with a requirement at our end that packets above 499 grams must be scanned to be sure they will not explode. I am astounded at the cost - and I wonder if this is just for Austria, or is this now for shipments from anywhere. I have not run into this in shipping from other countries. Does anyone have experience with this problem of shipping costs , and might there be a solution, like sending it to a friend in another European country and mailing it here from there? Call me befuddled, rather than terrorized.

[John Wagenseil]

Rob:
Ouch, that about 65 dollars or about twice the price of the model itself.
If they tore the model into smaller parts, each under 500 gm, and shipped several under 499 gm envelopes to you, would total shipping cost reduced? Then once you got it , all you would have to do is glue the parts back together.

[John Wagenseil]

Links to info about Austria to US mail:

Austrian Post launches alternative US shipping option | Post & Parcel

News - Post.at

[SJPONeill]

Rob

Try here: kartonmodellshop.de It's where I got mine and postage Austria-New Zealand was cheap and fast (less than a week)

Simon

[SJPONeill]

PS...I think they are wrong with the weight - I don't think the Rotodyne AND TSR.2 in the same packages weighed that much...

[mchale]

What about gary's rotodyne here in the downloads

[papermodelfan]

Thanks to all for the good advice, and the link to news about the peculiar state of play with shipping between Austria and the US. I just heard good news from IPMS-Austria, that a new postal agreement is in place so the rate for a package of 500 grams or more is now the old rate - about 17 Euros - still steep, but not the jaw dropping 47 barking Euros it was very recently.

Hi McHale. I too am a big fan of Gary Pilsworth's designs, but the models at IPMS are larger, more detailed and deliciously printed in amazing color schemes. A different animal. They have a freely downloadable interior too for the Rotodyne at their website - of course it could probably be fitted into Gary's model too, with some scaling.

Cheers, Robert Tauxe

[SJPONeill]

Originally Posted by papermodelfan

the models at IPMS are larger, more detailed and deliciously printed in amazing color schemes.

Yes, they are..so much so that, based on my impressions of the Rotodyne and TSR.2, I would be tempted to get the others in the series as well...my only criticism is that they tend to be a bit two dimensional in the cockpit and the Rotodyne does not have proper undercarriage bays or an option to display with the gear bay doors closed i.e. there is just a dark shaded patch to repsenst the open gear bays.

The passenger compartment for the Rotodyne is very nice and Waltiar the designer indicted in the TSR test build that he might develop a simialr free bomb bay for the TSR.2 - from the test build (it's in German) I got the feeling that there had been some engineering probelsm with the bomb bay so it had slipped on to the back burner instead of being included in the released model...still, can't complain: it is still a very very nice supersized TSR.2...just wish I had a Mirage IV to go with it (banking on Geli re-releasing its 1/33 Vigilante to get another in the 60s strike family)...

[rbeach84]

Don't they have UPS over there? I'd think postal would not be the only option for shipping parcels.

[Kevin WS]

Postage is always an issue if you are outside Europe.

I want a coupleof paper models from Russia - cost around 36 Euros - postage around 40 Euros!

Sigh!